Lockheed P-38 US Patent ...

[Mark Allen M]

Allan and Malcolm Loughead (pronounced "Lockheed") founded the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company at Santa Barbara, California, in 1916 and built flying boats and biplanes. Moving to more phonetic spelling, the brothers incorporated The Lockheed Aircraft Company of Hollywood in 1926 and built a number of transport and single seat airplanes. In 1929 Lockheed became part of the Detroit Aircraft Corporation, a multicompany body that went bankrupt in 1931. The Lockheed brothers left the company, formed Lockheed Brothers Aircraft Corporation Company and launched a new series of twin-engined transports, starting with the Lockheed 10A Electra. The RAF bought 250 bomber variants of the Electra, called Hudson.

In 1939, C. L. Johnson designed the Constellation, a long-range transport that became the backbone of US airlines in the 1940s and early 1950s. The C-130 Hercules tactical military turboprop transport, the larger C- 141 StarLifter transport and C-5A Galaxy represent the evolution of Lockheed designs in transport aircraft culminating in the L1011 Commercial airliner

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning of 1939, had worldwide use, mainly as ground-attack and fighter-bomber. Lockheed made the first U.S. jet fighter (the P-80 Shooting Star and built the F-104 of Vietnam war fame as the first fighter capable of sustained Mach 2.0

Lockheed's secret "Skunk Works" at Palmdale, California, was responsible for the U-2 spyplane and the SR-71A Blackbird Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The facility als developed the F-117A stealth fighter for subsonic night attack.

In March 1995 Lockheed Corporation merged with Martin Marietta to form present Lockheed Martin Corporation.

The patent for the P-38 was issued by the United States Patent Office on March 26, 1940.

[bdk]

So is the P-61 ornamentally similar? OV-10?

[Mark Allen M]

Could be. I'll see if I can dig something up on the P-61.
Interesting the simplicity of patents back then, as well as today.

M

[shrike]

Could be. I'll see if I can dig something up on the P-61.
Interesting the simplicity of patents back then, as well as today.

M

It's simple because it is only a patent for the 'ornamental shape'. Apple recently got into a lawsuit over the 'rounded rectangle' shape of their phones.

The P-61 could be argued to be ornamentally differnet by not having the horizontal stab extend beyond the fins, and the fuselage pod extend beyond the trailing edge of the wing.